


Vigil

by Spoon888



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Kissing, Multi, POV Outsider, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-15 05:56:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13606980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spoon888/pseuds/Spoon888
Summary: Starscream's lurking around the medical bay where Megatron is recovering from a serious injury. Skywarp's right to be suspicious.





	Vigil

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kanonkita](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kanonkita/gifts).



> Long overdue for Kanonkita, who has been a great help brainstorming ideas.

Megatron was down.

And that was not an all too uncommon occurrence.

Skywarp hadn't actually _seen_ it happen, and he'd heard a good few variations on the _how_ through the ship's rumour mill, but he did know one thing. Spinal struts weren't supposed to bend that way.

He'd caught a glimpse of them bringing their leader in, and another through the closing gap in the medbay doors. It didn't look like the sort of thing a quick buff and a few hammers could fix any time soon. It wasn't long before unofficial word had it that Megatron had been put into stasis whilst he underwent longterm repairs.

Skywarp wasn't too worried. Their leader had gone through worse. Like that debacle with Starscream's assassination drone a few thousand years back- the one with the chainsaw arms. Skywarp was still having nightmares. 

Among his general disappointment at not having witnessed what had sounded like the motherboard of all Prime V Megatron battle smack-downs, an extra duty had been added to Skywarp's roster. Medbay sentry.

The night shift too, Skywarp groaned, consulting the updated file.

He made his sorry way over. He wouldn't even have to do this stupid duty if his own comrades could be trusted not to take advantage of their defenceless leader. Not that he was thinking of anyone in particular...

Soundwave was already there when he arrived. He was out in the corridor, rather than in the actual medical bay. Skywarp wondered what he expected Soundwave to be doing inside anyway. It wasn't like he had any medical experience to offer. The most he could do was straighten Megatron's berth covers. Or hold his servo.

"Skywarp." Soundwave intoned in a loud voice, knocking Skywarp from his tangent thoughts.

Thoughts Skywarp then realised Soundwave could probably scan. Thoughts he was scanning this very moment. Thoughts he was---

Soundwave held up a servo. "No one is authorised to enter the Medical Bay save the medics working on Lord Megatron."

Skywarp nodded hurriedly, but couldn't help verifying, "What about--?"

"No one."

"Got it."

Soundwave stared at him in that eerily creepy way he always did when he gave Skywarp orders and asked him if he understood and Skywarp lied and said yes.

"No one." Soundwave repeated.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." Skywarp grinned to boost his faith. The medbay doors where sealed behind a twenty digit door code anyway. Only High Command and Medical had the clearance. So wasn't like Skywarp could let anyone in.

Soundwave seemed to feel he'd done as much as he could to get his point across. He nodded once, pointed to the _exact_ spot he wanted Skywarp to stand for the next six hours, and went in his way.

Skywarp remained at stiff straight backed attention for all of ten minutes before he slumped and let his helm thunk against the bulkhead, bored.

The corridor was empty, the lights were dim, and seeing as there was a complete lack of traitors lining up for a turn at pulling the figurative plug on Megatron, he saw no harm in unsubspacing the tiny video screen he and Thundercracker had stolen from a human residence and switching the channel to some random squishy action movie.

He liked them for the car chases. It was always fun watching them wreck. 

He had been watching for half an hour when the medbay doors swooshed open.

He juggled the television between his servos in complete panic as Hook and Longhaul stepped out. They were in the middle of some complicated conversation about 'internals' and 'processor function' and 'sparks' that despite Skywarp's surprise, made his own chest ache.

That sounded serious.

He shoved the television back into his subspace just as Hook turned to consider him. And frowned.

"I didn't think they'd send _you_." He commented.

"Hey!" Skywarp jabbed a thumb into his chest, "There's no one loyaler to Megatron than me!"

"I wasn't questioning that." Hook rolled his optics, acting pretty sassy for an aesthetically challenged ground pounder. "He's alone in there. We'll be back within the hour. Do not let anyone in, even if claim I sent them."

Skywarp didn't know why everyone thought he had to be told the same thing over and over again. "I _know_."

Longhaul made a noise of disbelief, which, _rude_ , and the two Constructi-rejects went off to do whatever grounders even did with their lives.

And Skywarp was alone again.

He leant forwards, checking right, checking left, removing the television and-

"Skywarp!"

White wings, blues thrusters, red hips, and a trademark sneer meant Starscream had materialised out of nowhere down the corridor.

Skywarp lost his grip on the television and this time didn't juggle it quite so expertly. His squishy-made video screen fell to the floor with a smash, broken into a hundred tiny pieces. Useless organics, couldn't even build a decent-

"What are you doing?" Starscream's snide voice said beside him, not sounding at all repentant for the loss of Skywarp's only form of entertainment.

"I'm guarding the door." He tore his optics from the mess of glass and metal to frown at his trine-leader. "What are you doing?"

"Why, checking on our dear leader, of course," Starscream's grin was devious and horrid. He moved to slip past. "Step aside, Skywarp."

A series of obvious connections took place in Skywarp's processor. A memory file opened without solicitation and suddenly Skywarp could hear the rumble of chainsaws and manacle laughter all over again.

"No!" He yelped, and slapped Starscream's servo before it could begin tapping in the code to open the door, behind which their defensiveness leader lay in stasis.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Starscream roared, playful temper dissolving. He repaid Skywarp's slap with a back hand of his own. Skywarp ducked away and claws only just grazed his cheek.

He flattened himself against the door.

"No unauthorised entry!" He shouted with conviction, channelling his best 'Soundwave'.

"I _am_ authorised, you buffoon." Starscream snarled. "I'm the Second in Command! I _order_ you to move!"

"No!" Was all Skywarp said, because he didn't really know how to argue back when technically Starscream outranked Soundwave and could _order_ him away, but basic logic dictated that letting Starscream murder Megatron was Not Good.

"Skywarp, move." Starscream said impatiently. His right arm rose, the null ray aimed for Skywarp's wing. "Move or I'll shoot you."

"You'll have to deactivate me!" Skywarp said with bravado, arms thrown wide across the doors. "No ones getting into this medical bay except over my empty husk!"

Starscream looked very much like he didn't want to get involved in _that_. He was clearly only interested in the annihilation of one individual tonight. His arm lowered.

"You're a mindless freak." Starscream spat, but turned to leave, and Skywarp could barely believe he'd win so easily.

"I'll be back!" Starscream yelled as he walked away.

Which made Skywarp feel as though his victory was going to be short lived.

He thought about calling Soundwave, letting him know Starscream was on the prowl... but then Soundwave would check the security footage and realise Skywarp had been watching T.V, and he'd get in trouble. Or relieved of duty. And for all Skywarp knew, Starscream might be looking for alternative methods of entry, like an air vent or blasting a hole though the ceiling.

He knew his trine-leader better than any one else cleared for sentry duty.

He started to fidget a little, from nerves.

Just to be sure he pressed his audial sensor up against the steel doors, listening. He couldn't hear any explosions or mad cackling or otherwise. It reassured him a little.

He moved away from the door- when something at the other end of the corridor caught his optic. He zoomed his optical feed in. It was an oil cake. His favourite.

His tank rumbled in want. He _was_ kinda hungry.

And besides, he was a teleporter. He'd be gone seconds. He activated the drive and flashed into place beside the cake, gathering the heavy treat into his arms hastily.

He caught movement in his peripheral.

Red, white, and blue movement.

He dropped the entire cake with a splatter of oil and a strangled sounding wail and warped onto Starscream's back just as his trine-leader finished entering the code. Starscream screamed. Skywarp screamed. The door opened.

Skywarp curled an arm around Starscream's neck and slapped a servo to his optics to block his vision. Starscream twisted, trying to throw him off, and they collided with the doorframe, and then the floor.

The medbay doors whooshed shut again, and Skywarp rolled off his trine leader with a sigh of relief.

Starscream hauled himself to his thrusters and kicked him right in the tank.

"Oof!" Skywarp clutched his armour, and halfheartedly kicked his trine-leader away.

"You idiot!" Starscream was waving his arms around a lot, which usually meant he was quite upset. "You should have taken the bribe!"

"Bribe?" Skywarp wheezed. 

Starscream's optics widened comically. "The oil cake?!" 

"That was a bribe?" Skywarp felt guilty for dropping it. No wonder it seemed to have come out of nowhere. 

"You're still not getting in," Skywarp rolled onto his knees and used his servos to push himself upright, out of breath. "You psycho!"

Starscream made a deep throated noise of frustration, servos balled into fists. "I'm not going to hurt him, Skywarp. I just want to see him!"

A likely story.

"How dumb do you think I am!?"

Starscream didn't answer that, but he had started twitching.

"Then come in with me." His vocaliser sounded strained, just a shade or so off begging. "You can make sure I don't do anything. Just let me-"

"No!" Skywarp knew Soundwave would have his wings if he found out. And he was pretty sure that all the _'let no one in'_ stuff was actually just alluding to Starscream personally. He was the last person that should be allowed inside.

Skywarp was so busy thinking about how this had the capacity to turn into Assassination Attempt No. 273 that he completely missed the way Starscream's face screwed up, a sign of impending violence. He didn't have time to react at all when a solid punch to the front of his helm sent his optics crossways and his vision dark around the edges.

He frowned at Starscream and heard him say, "No one to blame but yourself..." as he grew further and further away. Skywarp realised he was falling when his helm smacked back against the floor.

Soundwave was gonna kill him.

 

* * *

 

  
Machines beeped and pinged. The classic ambiance of the medical bay. Skywarp's processor ached, so he supposed he'd either teleported straight into a wall or been injured in battle. He hoped it was the latter. Thundercracker was always chewing him out for the first.

He could hear a hushed voice from somewhere to the right. Starscream's hoarse inflection. Wasn't often his trine-leader visited him in-- wait.

 _Wait_.

His optics onlined and he snapped his helm to the side to see Starscream's white wings hiding the figure laid prone across the medical berth. All Skywarp could see of Megatron were his legs and pedes. His spark jumped into his throat, and despite the ringing in his helm and obvious vertigo, he threw himself at Starscream with a yell of defiance. And veered dangerously left to collide with a table full of instruments.

Both he and the equipment fell to the floor with an almighty crash.

Starscream whipped around to stare at him, optics wide and bright.

"What the Pit are you doing?!" He whisper-shouted, looking two seconds away from vivisecting Skywarp.

Skywarp struggled to get his surroundings to stay still long enough to confront his trine-leader from anywhere but the floor. "What, what are you doing to him?!"

"Shh!" Starscream hushed him furiously, "I'm not doing anything."

"My aft you're not-!" Skywarp gripped a table and pulled himself up. Like he was going to believe Starscream after the treacherous glitch had punched him in the helm. "You're-!"

He stopped, optics focusing enough to take in what Starscream was actually doing. Which was-- He was clearly glitching, because it looked like-

"...Are you holding his servo?"

Starscream looked at the guilty servo in question, and then yanked it away. "It's none of your business what I'm doing!"

Skywarp just did not have the processing power to make sense of this situation. He took in the hint of colour growing across Starscream's furious face and the tight grip his trine-leader had on the railing of the medical berth. Had it been anyone else he would have said they looked worried.

Skywarp came around Starscream to stand at the side of the berth, thinking since he was in here now he might as well take a took. Megatron was covered in a multitude of wires monitoring his vitals and keeping him in perfect stasis. It looked like Hook and Longhaul had taken their break half way through a procedure, as Megatron's chest armour was removed from shoulder to hip up his right side. Skywarp could see the glimmer of a sealed spark chamber deep beneath crushed internals.

"Wow." He whispered, peering at the crumpled mess right in the middle of his leader with morbid curiosity.

Beside him Starscream wasn't saying anything. His servos were still griping the railing, the metal groaned between his tightening fists. His optics were dim and fixed on their leader's face.

Skywarp took his shoulder in a firm grip to draw his attention. "The medics will be back soon." He said, because he needed Starscream out so he could go back to looking like none of this had happened. He pulled Starscream away. "Come on, Screamer."

It took some persuasion but he managed to get Starscream to let go of the medberth and dragged him back out into the corridor. To Skywarp's immense relief, the medics hadn't returned yet. Phew.

Now outside, Starscream took a deep breath, straightened his shoulders, and headed back down the corridor the way he'd come. Without an explanation. Without a word.

"Screamer?" Skywarp called before he got too far, "hey, thanks for not killing him, I guess."

Starscream scoffed and stormed off. Skywarp was left to nurse the fist-shaped dent in his helm and worry about what Starscream might have done to Megatron before he'd come around.

 

* * *

 

 

A week later found Skywarp outside the medical bay on another night he'd rather be recharging. This time with no T.V. or bizarre trine-leader's to keep him company. The boredom meant he'd had a lot of time to process the events of that night.

And he'd still come up with nothing.

The good news was Megatron was no longer a prone piece of half-constructed scrap across a medical berth. Rumour had it he'd been brought back out of stasis that morning, but hadn't yet been given full function of his frame. There was still some work for his self-repair to do and Hook had ordered him on rest.

Of course, you couldn't just _order_ someone like Megatron to stay in berth all day. Hook had to be creative. Hence why the warlord's legs were going to be the last thing to come back online.

At least it meant Megatron wasn't completely defenceless against assassination attempts.

And speak of the Unmaker...

"Oh no, not this again." Skywarp complained when Starscream came strutting around the corner. "You gonna punch me out again?"

Starscream was smirking. With hindsight Skywarp would realise his trine-leader was looking happier and healthier tonight than he had all week.

"I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to try and stop me a second time."

"You're not getting in."

"Why ever not?" Starscream propped his servos on his hips. "He's conscious now. Don't tell me Soundwave still has you coddling him?"

"I'm not letting you in _because_ he's conscious. I don't need Megatron scrapping me on top of Soundwave's disappointment!"

Starscream snorted, "You're pathetic. He won't scrap you, I'll make sure of it."

"Oh yeah, sure." Skywarp pulled a face.

"Let me in and I'll make it worth your while. I won't even hit you."

"Whatever you're offering, I don't want."

"Relief from monitor duty. Three weeks."

Skywarp straightened his expression into something more sensible. He did want that. "Four weeks." He bartered.

"Two weeks." Starscream's optics narrowed.

"Fine, three."

"One and half." Starscream went even lower.

"Okay, alright!" Skywarp panicked, agreeing quickly. "But TC too. Or he'll be lonely."

Starscream looked at him like he'd never seen a creature so pathetic, but nodded anyway. "Now step aside."

Skywarp did, letting him key in the code, sticking close to follow him in.

The palm of Starscream's servo nearly hit him in the face, "What do you think you are doing?"

Skywarp knocked his arm aside, "Coming in?"

"No. Stay outside."

That was suspicious. "Fine. But your weapons stay with me."

Starscream was completely unbothered by such a request. He removed his null-rays without protest and shoved them harshly into Skywarp's arms. "Don't drop them." He snapped, and slipped between the doors, leaving Skywarp out in the corridor.

First thing Skywarp did was drop Starscream's precious null-rays. They clattered to the decking, denting and scratching their shiny finish. He stepped on one for good measure. 

The second thing he did was activate his warp drive and teleport into the medbay. The _Nemesis's_ security defences could go eat slag for all he cared. A week and a half free of monitor duty meant very little if he spent in it the brig for being stupid enough to have let Starscream close to a compromised Megatron.

Skywarp reappeared in the far end of the medbay behind a set of privacy curtains. It was a large enough area that the faint crack of his arrival went unnoticed by Starscream, but it also meant Skywarp was sadly too far to hear much more than the quiet murmurs of a conversation.

Skywarp poked his helm between the curtains. Starscream stood over Megatron, facing him, their leader still prone across the berth. The rumours had been right though, he was conscious now, his faded optics locked with Starscream's.

They seemed to be speaking civilly -which was new for both of them.

Skywarp hadn't known Megatron's rasping voice could sound so soft. He didn't know Starscream could speak without screeching either.

For a moment he wondered if he'd accidentally teleported into the wrong universe. Upsidedown world. Where everything was the opposite.

That theory only strengthened when Skywarp watched Starscream cup the side of Megatron's face, thumb sliding across worn grey cheek plating.

Maybe Starscream was about to break Megatron's neck? Or claw his optics out? Or--?

Starscream bent, and though Megatron couldn't move it felt like he was leaning in as well. A magneticy to one another. There was a pause, more hushed words, Starscream shaking his helm, expression ... _adoring_? What?

Starscream bent the rest of the way and kissed Megatron.

 _What_?!

Skywarp reset his optics.

They were still kissing.

Skywarp could hear only static, his processor blank as he watched -which was weird because he would have expected to have lots and lots of thoughts and opinions about what he was currently witnessing, because what he _was_ witnessing was not only Starscream kissing Megatron like this was the climax of a squishy Rom-Com movie he and Thundercracker sometimes watched, but also plenty of sickeningly affectionate forehead touching and nose brushing and-

Urgh. Not even Autobots were that grossly romantic.

After what felt like a lifetime Starscream drew away. He whispered something to Megatron, sounding serious and intense and -oh, yeah, they were kissing again.

Skywarp retreated back behind the curtains, struggling to dim his optics against the shock. This turn of events certainly explained the previous night Starscream had been in here, but raised a hundred other questions about wh _at the flipping scrap was going on?!_

He heard what sounded like a goodnatured laugh from behind the curtain. A deep laugh. _Megatron laughing_. He resisted the urge to poke his helm back out and see what it was that could make someone like Megatron sound so fond.

He reactivated his warp drive and teleported back out into the corridor to stare blankly at the wall before he could be any further traumatised by whatever backwards nightmare was occurring. He hadn't wanted to be bored, but if _that_  inside the medbay was the alternative he'd rather watch paint dry.

He didn't know how much time had passed when the doors finally reopened. Skywarp hurriedly gathered Starscream's weapons back off the floor, brushing them off before offering them back to his trine-leader when he came though.

Starscream was wearing a dreamy little smile, his expression wistful. He didn't acknowledge Skywarp beyond retrieving his weapons. He didn't even notice the bent angle of his left null-ray from where Skywarp had stepped on it.

It was terrifying.

Dear sweet Primus, they were in love.

 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Disarmament: or 'The Tale of Ole Slashy'](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14507292) by [kanonkita](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kanonkita/pseuds/kanonkita)




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